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Frederik Hegel
By Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson
(See Note 79)
I
DEDICATION
You never came here; but I go
Here often and am met by you.
Each room and road here must renew
The thought of you and your form show
Standing with helpful hand extended,
As when long since in trust and deed
My home you from my foes defended.
...
So often, while I wrote this book,
The light shone from your genial eye;
Then we were one, both you and I
And what in silence being took;
So here and there the book possesses
Your spirit and your heart's fresh faith,
And therefore now your name it blesses.
I love the air, when growing colder
It, clear and high,
The purer sky
Broadens with sense of freedom bolder.
I find in forests joy the keenest
In autumn days
When fancy plays,
And not when they are young and greenest.
I knew a man: in autumn clearness
His even course, -
His heart's fine force
Like autumn sky in soft-hued sheerness.
His memory is, as - when a-swarming
The cold blasts first
Of winter burst -
The gentle flame my room first warming.
When all our outward longings falter,
And summer's mind
Within we find,
Is friendship's feast round autumn's altar.
Extra Info:
TRANSLATED FROM THE NORWEGIAN IN THE ORIGINAL METERS BY ARTHUR HUBBELL PALMER
Professor of the German Language and Literature In Yale University
Note 79.
FREDERIK HEGEL. This poem is the last in the third edition (1890),
for which it seems to have been written. Hegel (1817-1887) was from
1850 the head of the Gyldendal publishing house in Copenhagen.
Björnson made his acquaintance in 1860, and, beginning with King
Sverre in 1861, Hegel became Björnson's publisher. In 1865
Björnson's influence secured to him Ibsen's works, and later those
of Lie and many other Norwegian authors. The cultural
dependence of Norway upon Denmark for centuries had prevented the
prosperous growth of the publishing business in the former country,
whose leading publisher went into bankruptcy soon after 1860. That
Björnson thus went to Copenhagen with his books may seem to have
been a blow to the cause of Norwegian independence, and to have
delayed the rise of a thriving, stable business, but on the other
hand Björnson's action and influence contributed greatly to
establish for perhaps half a century a certain dominance of the
Norwegian spirit in all Scandinavia. For Björnson personally, as his
correspondence with Hegel shows, it was certainly a great good
fortune to gain Hegel as his publisher and later as his friend. This
Hegel was to all his authors in the most faithful, self-sacrificing
way, and no less their valued financial adviser.
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